Newport, 24 August, 1861.
. . . I do not agree with you that the war is likely to be
short. Its issue may soon become certain, but it will be long before we can lay
down our arms. Nor am I ready yet to share in any gloomy prognostications. I
believe the people will save the country and the government in spite of all the
weakness and mismanagement and corruption at Washington. Nor am I afraid of the
effect of another defeat, — if another should come. It will indeed bring to the
surface an immense show of cowardice, and meanness; but we have no right yet to
believe that the temper of our people is so low that it will not rise with the
trial and [sic] of calamity. I bate nothing of heart or hope, and I
grieve to think that you should ever feel out of heart or despondent. We have
not yet more than begun to rouse ourselves; we are just bracing to the work;
but we are setting to it at last in earnest.
The practical matter to be attended to at this moment seems
to me to be the change in the Cabinet. A change must be made, — and it
will be made, if not by the pressure now brought to bear, then by a popular
revolution. We shall have public meetings of a kind to enforce their resolves
in the course of a few days, if Cameron, Welles and Smith are not removed, or
the best reason given for retaining them. Mr. Seward ought to understand that
it is not safe for him that they should any longer remain in the Cabinet. If
another reverse were to come and they still there, the whole Cabinet would have
to go; — and then let Mr. Lincoln himself look out for a Committee of Safety. .
. .
Let me hear from you again soon, — and above all do not
begin to doubt our final success.
If the fortunes of war go against us, if all our domestic
scoundrels give aid to the cause of the rebels, — we still shall not fail, and
the issue will be even better than our hopes.
Most affectionately
Yours,
Charles E. N.
SOURCE: Sara Norton and M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters
of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 241-2
No comments:
Post a Comment